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Charter Schools Directory
Independent school directory — we do not operate the schools listed or handle admissions. Contact a school directly for enrollment and current programs.

Data report

How many charter schools are in each state?

8,068 open charter schools, 47 states and territories, 3,957,681 students. Below is every state, with the median school size and staffing ratio that the headline count hides.

By Charter Schools Directory editorial team· Reviewed September 28, 2026 · 2024–25 Common Core of Data, accessed 2026-09-14· Sources and methodology

Charter schools are concentrated

Five states hold 50% of the country’s charter schools: California (1,276), Texas (1,056), Florida (734), Arizona (569), Michigan (368). That is not a population story — it is a law story. A state with a permissive charter law, multiple authorizers and no cap grows a charter sector; a state with a single authorizer and a hard cap does not, however large it is.

Every state, 2024–25

StateSchoolsStudentsMedian sizeMedian per teacher
California1,276725,79639821.9
Texas1,056489,32642316.9
Florida734405,35442018.8
Arizona569231,66025815.2
Michigan368154,50033116.9
New York350186,76245013.2
Ohio339123,08020216.9
Minnesota30972,09615013.5
Colorado260131,64142515.4
Wisconsin22548,47311417.3
North Carolina213153,00862415.8
Pennsylvania175168,35659413.8
Louisiana14696,82059614.3
Utah14281,87950519.3
Indiana13455,57731714.3
Illinois13158,67941315.9
Oregon12844,71822218.4
District of Columbia12541,83331511
Tennessee11445,165393—
Arkansas11045,32729212.4
Nevada10473,20247329.1
South Carolina10461,99443114
New Mexico9932,90624113.2
Georgia9664,07942813.2
New Jersey8663,82142314.3
Idaho8441,13733818
Missouri8125,75129511.4
Massachusetts7348,19258411.2
Oklahoma7355,02134917.8
Maryland5025,35141015.2
New Hampshire426,03710613
Rhode Island4213,46532313.5
Hawaii3813,09424213.5
Alaska317,26619917.1
Delaware2419,03258317.4
Alabama238,35635819.9
Connecticut2110,81143115.6
Washington174,81823214.4
Puerto Rico165,29030613
Maine112,71717714.4
Mississippi103,97745721
Wyoming81,29415013.6
Iowa78049719.3
Kansas72,34710610.6
Virginia71,27014512.6
West Virginia63,366245—
Guam42,233779—

How to read the table

  • Schools counts campuses reported as open in the 2024–25 federal collection, not operators. One network with twelve campuses appears twelve times.
  • Students sums reported enrolment. A small number of schools report no enrolment figure, so state totals are a floor rather than an exact census.
  • Median size is more useful than the average: a handful of very large virtual schools drag the mean upwards in several states.
  • Median per teacher is a staffing ratio, not a class size. It counts every teacher on the payroll, including specialists who never take a full class.

Why the counts differ so much

Three features of state law explain most of the variation: who may authorize a school, whether the state caps the number of charters, and how charters are funded for facilities. States that allow universities or a dedicated state board to authorize, with no cap, have the largest sectors. States where only the local district may authorize — effectively asking a district to approve its own competition — have the smallest.

If you are comparing two states as a family relocating, the count matters less than the mix: a state with 300 schools of which half are virtual offers something very different from one with 300 neighbourhood campuses. See online and cyber charter schools for that split.

Browse charter schools by state

Frequently asked questions

How many charter schools are there in the United States?

This directory lists 8,068 open charter schools across 47 states and territories in the 2024–25 federal data, reporting 3,957,681 students between them.

Which state has the most charter schools?

California, with 1,276 open charter schools serving 725,796 reported students.

How many charter schools are in Texas?

1,056 open charter schools in the 2024–25 data, with 489,326 students reported and a median school size of 423.

Why do some states have no charter schools?

Charter schools exist only where state law creates them. A handful of states have never passed a charter law, and others cap the number of schools or restrict who may authorize them, which is why counts vary far more than population alone would explain.

Are these numbers current?

They are the 2024–25 federal school year, accessed 2026-09-14. Schools open and close every year, so treat any single count as a snapshot of that year rather than a live total.

Background: what is a charter school · charter vs district schools. Source: Common Core of Data (NCES), via Education Data Portal, Urban Institute, 2024–25, accessed 2026-09-14, under the Open Data Commons Attribution License (ODC-By) v1.0.